DMRC vs Rinfra to be heard on Friday, HC tells Delhi, Union govt

The Delhi High Court on Monday told the counsels of the Delhi and the Union government that the matter about the payment of arbitral award dues owed to Reliance Infrastructure will be taken up on Friday.

Justice Yashwant Varma also said that given the Supreme Court order upholding the arbitral award they would not be able to give both of them much time.

In the last hearing(Friday), the Delhi high court asked Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s (DMRC’s) stakeholders, the Government of National Capital Territory (GNCTD) and the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), to be impleaded in the matter.

“Undisputedly, the Ministry of Housing, GNCTD are the stakeholders of the respondent (DMRC). It would thus be warranted that the stakeholders be formally placed on notice and are invited to make submissions before this court,” the court said.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Reliance Infrastructure, said in the last hearing that the court would be justified in lifting the corporate veil of (DMRC) for the execution of the award.

Attorney General R Venkatramani, appearing for DMRC, suggested asking GNCTD and MoHUA how they would proceed in the matter.

In January, the DMRC had told the court it had requested the Centre and the city government for paying over Rs 3,500 crore each as interest-free subordinate debt for repayment of the unpaid arbitral award.

The enforcement of an arbitration award of over ₹7,100 crore in favour of the DAMEPL(an arm of Reliance Infra). Of the total amount, DMRC has paid ₹2,600 crore. It now owes ₹4,500 crore to DAMEPL.

DMRC and DAMEPL have been at odds ever since the latter pulled out of the Delhi Metro Airport Line operations. It was due to safety issues arising from structural defects.

An arbitral court ruled in favour of RInfra in 2017. It asked DMRC to pay the arbitral award, which was later upheld by the Supreme Court.